Yes.

Yes I did.

"Devil spawn!"

"Witch courtier!"

"Beast keeper!"

The poor boy tried to deflect, but the blows kept on coming. The devastating hits rained down upon him, yet he let out not a sound, taking the brutal punishment pounding with a quiet deviance. He tumbled backwards into the pond, but they didn't stop there. His pursuers pulled him back up, kicking, punching him in the stomach, the rib cage, the throat, but he accepted everything without a word. He didn't weep, cry, or wail, he simply allowed them to do what they wanted. Finally, after what seemed like so many hours, they left him laying in the rubble, still mumbling insults as they left him. Luki wiped his eyes, and along with the tears came blood. He stood up, scarred legs wobbling. It was a good thing they hadn't broken any of his bones. He fell against a tree and started to cry. His clothes were torn and bloodied. But he knew why they did this. And he understood. And he didn't argue.

Nobody wanted him. Everybody, all the townsfolk, they hated him, they despised him. They had thrown him out of town after they had found out what he had done. Even his parents looked down at him with disgust, claiming they no longer had a son. All his friends had immediately turned on him, bullying and tormenting him every day. He was kicked out of his house, left to roam the streets, but every being refused to look at him. What they had said, it was true, somewhat. He was a beast keeper. Not really a witch courtier, but he knew what they meant. He had befriended a monster, and now he was going to be sucked up into the Unbeliefs. The rules of the Devil, everybody believed. They had bullied, tortured, tried to kill him, but he had withstood. Yet he knew his protests were failing him. He couldn't keep up any longer. He was on the verge of breaking, the brink of turning mad.

Luki hobbled through the dark forest, pushing past trees and foliage, until he found what he was looking for. The place only he knew, the place everyone had shunned him for knowing. He almost regretted finding this place. But he knew what he had to do. He crept closer to the edge of the lake, where he could hear the merry laughter of a little girl as she splashed in the water. But this was not just a little girl. He edged closer, and she came into view. Not exactly as he had imagined, but she would have to do. There was no one else. Long hair spiraled around her as she turned in the water, splashing continuously, unaware of her fate. He gripped his knife tighter.

The girl barely had time to scream as he leapt into the lake.

"Father, mother, look! Look! Look at what I've done!" The boy ran up to his parents, his wet feet marking the ground as he ran. He showed them what he held in his arms, and they smiled. "I did it, father! Mother, I've done it!"

The parents beamed. "You're a clever boy, Luki, I always knew you were." The man crouched down to pat his son on the head, and tried to get a look at what he held. "You truly are my son. Come, we must show the Elder."

He nodded enthusiastically, and watched his parents chatter excitedly as they started to walk away. As soon as they couldn't see him, his face morphed into sadness, and he looked down at the lifeless one in his arms. He had closed her eyes, so she looked like she was asleep. But he knew she wasn't. Blood still dripped from her missing arm, and it stained his shirt. His face, clothes and limbs were covered in red splatters, but under the dripping liquid he wore a a frown. This wasn't what he wanted. He held her closer to him, kissing her forehead as he began to clean her face. Covering it with most of her hair, he began to walk after his parents. The dead Lumiere hung limply in his arms.

...

"I had no choice." He said harshly, trying to keep himself calm. "They would have killed you if not me. They shunned me. But you weren't there, no. Not like how I was. They despised me, they loathed me. But I knew you had a sister. It was the only thing I could do. I am sorry, Luka."

"You killed her!" She screamed, tears pouring from her eyes, dripping down her pale face. "You killed her and you deserve to die the same, horrible death! I never should have trusted you! I should never have allowed you to see me! I should have killed myself then as well! You're the monster, Luki!"

His jaw tightened, and it seemed like he was doing all he could to prevent himself from reaching forward and slapping her. He only sighed sadly. "I truly am sorry, Luka. I was an idiot. I was a child. But I just wanted to be accepted. You know how we are - we feel we need to belong to someone. I'm sorry that humans were created like this. But it has been done. And I wanted to be taken back in, and the only way to do it was to kill Lulu." He took a breath, avoiding Luka's teary eyes. "I will do whatever I can to make it up to you."

"You killed my sister." Luka whispered, her voice quivering with rage. "There is no way you can make it up to me. You must die and burn in the depths of Hell, may I never see you again." She coughed, feeling her throat. "I don't care if I die along with you. If you make it downwards, maybe I could rest in peace. Why did you come here?" She demanded. Luki crouched down next to her, and if she hadn't been strapped down so tightly, or maybe if she could get a little water down her dry throat, maybe she would have used her tail to slap him across the face.

"I have come on the orders of my master." He said solemnly. "They request I find the Dark Kitsune, and dispose of them. Apparently they are a threat to our beliefs, and we must rid of them at all cost. I have heard that one resides here."

Luka took in a sharp breath. Mikuo? Or Miku? If he killed one of them... "There are no Ki- Dark Kitsunes here." Luka said firmly, but her voice cracked. She looked around desperately. She wouldn't last long without water. Not this long. She was pushing her limit. Sure, she could survive on land, but locked up in a room like this? Her skin was starting to dry out, and her tail now felt weak and useless. "You're an idiot, Luki. To believe them. Anything. You shouldn't have... Agh-" She coughed, and blood splattered onto the floor.

Luki looked at it in shock. He stood up, and walked around to the back of the room. Luka lay against the chair, too weak to argue. Luki returned with a pitcher of water. "Drink."

She shook her head weakly. "No." She coughed blood again, and Luki grasped her face, forcing her to swallow the water he poured down her throat. She gasped and spluttered, and he stopped. "I wish you never existed." She spat, wiping her mouth as she glared at him bitterly.

He only looked at her sadly. "Come. I'll take you back to your zone."

"Ha! Y-You... Wish..!" Luki said nothing. He untied her straps and lifted her up. Luka pushed away from him. "Hey! Stop! Let go of me, you lug! I can walk! I'm not as stupid as you are!" She continued shooting insults as the soldier carried her away.

...

"Fifth Moon."

"Are you sure?"

"Do I look unsure?"

"Sort o-"

"Shut up."

Miku watched the moon. It was nearly time. Surely Luka and Gakuko would've finished making the explosives by now. And they would have found a way to send them to her cell. Even if she wasn't in her cell, it would come to her, one way or another. But why was it taking so long? She frowned. Any time now, clouds would break through the corridors of the castle, put the guards to sleep. As the limp bodies fell, they would make their way out, and perhaps, be free. If they could fight through the village, of course, but that wouldn't be a problem. She just had to wait.

"This is a waste of time." Mikuo sounded, swinging his legs. He was seated on one of the highest stacked crates, looking down at her like she was a commoner and he a king. "There's no way they can pull off something that big. I'm not going to spend the rest of the night on guard. I'm tired."

"Then sleep and stay imprisoned." Miku said quietly, but something in her tone told him it wasn't meant as a threaten. Did she want him to escape with her?

"Look, even if they do manage to make it, how can you be so sure it'll-"

A scream cut him off.

Miku jumped to her feet immediately, grabbing the bars of the cell and looking out. Her ears twitched feverishly, but she couldn't detect anything after that. Mikuo bounded up next to her, and they both looked out of the cell, wondering what had happened. The scream... It wasn't very high-pitched, so she reckoned it belonged to a man. She didn't know they could scream. But it wasn't a guards. If they had fallen, the sounds of armour hitting the ground would've caught her ears. But this was silent. And the scream had gotten cut off too, like they didn't have time. Who was it?

"I think... Was that...?" Mikuo frowned. "That guy with the purple hair? Couldn't be... I always knew he was a drama queen, but..." He turned, and he got his nose into Miku's hair. In surprise, he flinched, and stumbled backwards, shocked at how he hadn't realized how close he had been pressing up to her. She looked at him in equal astonishment, but shook her head and turned back.

"That is it!" A voice exploded, as Hideyo burst into the room. What seemed to be her normally calm and pleasant demeanor slowly changed and her face contorted in an all - consuming anger; her nostrils flaring, her eyes flashing and closing into slits, her mouth quivering and drooling, slurring words that were unintelligible came spewing into space like a volcano releasing its pent up emotions into the darkness. Her loud, booming voice seemingly shook the room. "I don't know how you're doing it!" She screeched, voice reverberated long after she finished speaking. "But I have had about enough with your useless tricks!"

"What are you talking about?" Mikuo demanded, stomping back up to her,

"I have no use for you two any longer!" She cried, completely ignoring their protests. "Take them to the Ice Zone, may they freeze to death!"

...

"He's dead."

"You don't have to tell me twice."

Len pressed his fingers against the man's neck, but he could no longer feel the heat pulsating within the body. "Nope. He's completely gone." He looked at the claw marks and shuddered. "And I don't want to think of what made him... Gone."

Gakuko watched from her window of the cell. She looked at him, laying, motionless over a pool of blood on the floor, helpless and terrified. She had always thought that muscles relaxed after death, since the brain stopped working, yet the horrified expression remained frozen on his face. As if someone had frozen him there. But that was impossible. No monsters with the capability to control ice or weather lived in their part of the castle, and magic could not be used here, anyway. He must've have been so shocked his muscles refused to let him relax. He would be stuck with the grotesque expression forever. He must've seen something horrible. So terrifying, he would never be calmed down. She slumped to the floor. He wasn't that bad. She thought regretfully. Sure, he was an asshole, but... Her shoulders shook, and she decided not to think about it.

As she heard the guards bring away the two Solins from the other cell, she wondered what happened to Luka. Guards had barged in and demanded for her. She had grabbed all the jars and swung them away before the guards arrived, but several broke, and most got lost in the murky water. Maybe the other Lumiere could find them. Maybe something could be done.

The smell of decay had already began to waft into her cell, and she scrunched up her nose. She hated being near dead people that weren't preserved. Of course she had been near one - plenty, actually. She had lost of count of all the bodies she had dragged into her lake, until one of them had regained consciousness and fought back. And just her luck. It was a One. She turned over, her hair falling over her shoulders. Who killed him? How had they gotten away so easily? Why did she feel involved in this?

Hah! She wasn't, now was she? It wasn't her fault he was dead. Let him rot. Just not next to her. But... Still. She wanted to find out. She had heard him scream, but even though she jumped to the window as fast as she could, it seemed the murderer was gone. There were no footprints. No fingerprints. No weapons. It couldn't have been a human. It must have been one of them. But how had they escaped the cell? How had they found the time to kill a man and vanish? And how had they have been killing one after another, without getting caught?

Questions continued to rain upon her, but she wasn't interested anymore. She looked out the window. Fifth Moon... If only they didn't have to wait.

...

And the snow just kept on falling. Miku brushed the snow off her nose, and frowned. A new definition of evil formed in her kind: Anybody who made her hate something that she loved. She remembered the first time she had played in snow. She had had fun. But now? Anything but. She wanted to get out. Kins were used to snow, but in a room at this temperature, she knew neither would last long. She looked at Mikuo, curled up in one corner, freezing but fascinated. Like he'd never seen anything like it before. She had been in snow before. Maybe she would last longer than him. Right. Now snow would only symbolize the last harrowing moments leading up to their death. She looked down at the wooden boards she as seated upon, stacked up so she could prevent the frostbite from getting at her. She knew better than him. He could've dropped dead right then and there. The snow was already about three inches deep. Mikuo looked up at the falling snow, seeming amazed, and yet disgusted by it. "Never seen snow before?"

The fascination on his face turned into an annoyed frown. "No." He admitted grudgingly. "I mean... I've seen snow before, but I... I never actually got to play in it. N-Not that I want to. I just... I always worked in the heated area of the zones, and when it was snow out I was just forced to stay in the cell. I... I know... It's actually... I thought it was really pretty... But... Up close it's kind of... Disturbing."

"Hah. Well, you got that right." Miku rubbed her arms. She looked at him, rubbing his runny nose. No, he wouldn't last long here. Neither of them would ever escape the cold clutches of the snow, unless they escaped first, of course. She looked around them, the never-ending landscape of snow, something she didn't dare trek through. They wouldn't escape. If someone came to rescue them... She looked up hopefully. But who would find them? The coldness and seeped into her skin, blocking out her hearing and stuffing her nose. They wouldn't last long enough to wait for someone to snatch them away before they froze to death. But the only way to survive was...

Though beautiful, the snow was cold and sharp as it bit at their fingers and the wind kissed their cheeks. Like a wolf the snow bit at them with its sharp icy teeth, and Miku tensed up. Let him die. Was her first thought, but if she wanted to stay alive.. She looked at him, biting her lip. I want to live. But...

Mikuo jerked. He stumbled sideways, nearly toppling into the snow, but Miku caught his arm and pulled it back onto the board. "Wh-What are you doing!?" He spluttered, trying to push away from her.

She only gripped his arm tighter. "Shut up. Do you want to live or not? Obviously you don't know a thing, so be grateful that I'm here to save your sorry butt from the frost."

"B-But-" Mikuo gave up. The heat in his cheeks was enough to warm him up for a long time, but how close she was... His face flushed radish red and he looked at his feet, hoping she wouldn't notice. He would've preferred to die right then and there. Crawl into a hole and never be seen again. Instead, he shifted his weight over and felt her lean against him, and his face deepened a shade. Why? Of all places, why a frozen hell hole? Maybe if it was a heated desert- He paused, then shuddered. Okay, not a good idea.

She had spread a canvas over them, small but just the right size to cover them both. Eventually he began to feel drowsy, feeling her smooth hair as he leaned his head downwards. The tips of her ears tickled his nose, but he didn't care. He was already drifting off, warmed to the heat of her body where she just... Melted into him. He closed his eyes, the noise of the snow falling stopping around him. For one reason or another, he felt safe and comfortable, leaning against her, warmth spreading into him like a fire.

For a moment, just that moment, the feeling that had constantly gnawed at him gave him peace, and he just wanted it to last f-

"What-"

"What-!?"

Miku pushed him away, and Mikuo tumbled back into the snow, landing with a soft thud. The wetness spilled into his ears and fell over him, and he jumped up quickly. "Wh-What the hell!?" He shouted, standing up and backing away. "What was that for!?"

"Uh... Did I-"

Rinto stepped back as the two Kins shot him sour looks.

Oh ok